January 13, 2013 – 1 Kings 8:33 – 8:66

I was thinking about when Solomon is talking about other nations coming to the Temple and praying even though they weren’t God’s people.  He says that because they look at Israel and see how they live and believe and pray to God, the foreigners will see this and know that God is God.  This made me think about what I have talked about before.  There is such a disunity between all Christians and this creates an atmosphere of doubt for any non-Christian.  Why would a person come to believe in Christ when they look at the division in Christianity, the different beliefs, different teachings, and the animosity among us all.  How is that convincing to a person that Christ was the son of God and came down for each individual to save us all. 

Solomon’s prayer is a prayer focused on God’s mercy.  Solomon doesn’t question about if Israel will fail to live up to God’s commands, he prays about what God will do when they fail.  He ask for God’s mercy when they fail, because he knows that they will, and ask God to bring them back when they realize what they have done and call out for Him.  We should all pray that we have the same longing for God’s mercy.  Pray for our nation and our world to seek God’s mercy.  To seek mercy for what we have done wrong takes humility, and this is one thing that seems to truly be lacking in the world around us.